Labor floats plan for giant pier out into Port Phillip in its Bay West port plan

Adam Carey

Labor is considering building a giant, hook-shaped pier stretching about eight kilometres into the sea as a way to make good on its proposal to build a new container port in the west of Port Phillip Bay near Geelong.

The pier would extend at least three kilometres out to sea into deeper waters, which would reduce the huge amount of dredging needed to build the port, then run parallel to shore for about five kilometres. Large ships carrying up to 10,000 containers would dock at the offshore terminal to unload their cargo, which would be moved to land by rail.

The new port would be built at one of three possible spots west of Melbourne in a shallow part of the bay between Werribee and Geelong. It would be Australia’s largest, with capacity to handle 10 million shipping containers a year, almost double the amount the Port of Melbourne can handle.

A design for the Bay West concept - called an “island offshore berthline” - was presented to the Committee for Geelong by Shadow Treasurer Tim Pallas last month and has been seen by Fairfax Media.

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It depicts Bay West on farmland east of Avalon Airport between Point Wilson and the Werribee River, with the huge pier running out to sea just south of Lake Borrie, an internationally protected wetland that is home to hundreds of bird species.

“Labor’s preference is for a site location closer to Point Wilson,” the briefing paper notes. The land at Point Wilson is owned by the Department of Defence.

Mr Pallas put Labor's case for Bay West to the Committee for Geelong on June 20, arguing it was a better location for Melbourne’s next port than Hastings, which is the site the Napthine government is pursuing at an estimated cost of $10 billion.

An investigation of Bay West by the Department of Transport, Planning and Infrastructure found that 66 million to 84 million cubic metres of material would need to be dredged from the sea floor so ships could reach the site - up to to four times more than was dredged in the previous channel-deepening project.

The department ruled out the Bay West proposal as too risky, advising the Napthine government to continue with its plan to expand the Port of Hastings.

But an alternative analysis presented by Mr Pallas claims the offshore terminal proposal could reduce dredging to between 30 million and 60 million cubic metres. This was still more material than would be dredged to develop the Port of Hastings, the briefing stated, estimating 25 million to 50 million cubic metres would be needed there, much of it silt.

The briefing paper, titled Future Port Siting Options for Victoria, quotes a University of Adelaide study from April that projected Geelong would lose almost 5000 jobs within four years of the end of car manufacturing in Australia.

Mr Pallas told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that Labor would set up an independent advisory body, Infrastructure Victoria, to evaluate Bay West.

"Labor will determine the viability of Bay West as the location for Victoria’s future container port as we believe it could be a nationally significant investment for the Geelong region,” Mr Pallas said.

But maritime analyst Sandy Galbraith said Victoria had run out of time to evaluate potential port locations, and risked losing trade to ports in Sydney and Brisbane. Hastings needed to be developed without delay, he said.

"The shipping industry doesn’t want Bay West," Mr Galbraith said. "There’s lots of trucking companies who have got great vested interest in having the development over in the west and good luck to them but that’s not the driver of where Melbourne's next port needs to be, ships are."

Larger ships carrying 8000 to 10,000 containers could seek to visit Australia within two years, and at present Sydney's Port of Botany is the only port that can handle them, he said. Brisbane is dredging its port to accommodate larger ships.

"The international shipping market is moving at such a pace that Melbourne is going to get lost in the wake of what’s going on," Mr Galbraith said.

56 comments so far

Sounds good to me!

Commenter

John Devereux

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 7:15AM

It will never get built. Labor are pathetic when it comes to spending our money (desal plant, myki...). Please don't let the economic vandals back in!

Commenter

Simon

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 8:23AM

Simon - don't be so cynical - Labor have a proud history of providing jobs to union mates to collect union dues that find their way back to Labor and more importantly of delivering projects many times over budget and well past delivery date.

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 9:41AM

Spot on John. Anything that stops dredging is a good thing. Now all they have to do is incorporate a windfarm or a solar collector on the pier, and it would repay its capital cost in no time.

Commenter

Nonrev

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 9:42AM

Nonrev- how big are you going to make the pier to hold a wind-farm or solar collector that would be big enough to pay for this? Get real - that is exactly the sort of ludicrous thinking that leads Labor to make such bad decisions that impact us so badly.

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 10:42AM

the Truth, a wind farm at sea would be a good idea and not just for an off shore container facility.I think they do this overseas quite effectively.

Commenter

Trashman

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 11:04AM

Trashman - have you seen the size of the turbines - plus they only run under certain wind speeds so out in the open bay it would not run that often - it isn't a good idea when you think it through - it is a thought bubble at best.

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 11:09AM

Another hastily contrived thought bubble to distract attention away from Dictagate. It sounds "just as good" as the desal plant, the north-south pipeline and MYKI. Do you I need to explain further?

Commenter

Allan

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 11:40AM

Labor builds infrastructure the LNP sells it off to their mates.

Commenter

mb

Date and time

July 30, 2014, 11:46AM

I'm sure this will encroach on the natural habitat of the endangered speckled mating frog.